A Fleeting Moment
by uneecrivaine
Summary: BRALLIE. Set in Episode 1x09, Vigil, when Callie is about to tell Brandon how she really feels. What if Brandon had seen Callie standing there after hugging Talya? What would change? HAPPY ENDING because man, this scene pissed me off. Better than my summary sounds, RxR. Oneshot. Complete.


For a fleeting moment, the typical, long hospital hallway offers something more than just despair and negativity.

She feels it in the way she has to throw open the doors. She feels it in the way the light from the outside world seems to follow her as she goes, as if it had followed her many a time before, but was sent away for a while. She feels it in the way time stops, or in the least, ceases to exist, if only just for that fleeting moment.

And so she is walking, except her feet go much faster than she realizes, trying desperately to catch up with her mind. Then she is teetering on the edge of jogging, because the light at the end of the tunnel is so bright and present that she really sees no other option.

There's something strange happening on her face, something familiar, but she can't quite pinpoint it, nor does she try hard enough to. Because, in all honesty, she doesn't really care. All that matters is _gettingtohimgettingtohimgettingtohim _and nothing else. Not for that fleeting moment.

She knows its a smile but it feels much more than that. She knows that she had known what it was before, but she doesn't now. She also knows that only he can bring that knowledge back, and that single thought alone sends something conductive down to her toes, willing them forward,

_faster_

and then she's almost there. She manages to study him as he leans on that wall, shoulders slightly slouched, hands in his pockets, and she wants to paint him. She doesn't know how to paint, but he's so classically beautiful, she has to make some art of him.

She is waiting for the moment he turns his head and sees her, lips full and rosy and inviting and done waiting on her to decide. Now she's ready, and when she pictures this in her head, it's ten times better than when she pictured it as his _foster sister._

And suddenly, she's right there.

But the moment never comes, it never happens, only in her head.

And there's someone else in his arms but it's not her, definitely not her. She thinks she's left marks on the cold tile from where she skidded to a stop, but she doesn't look to down to check, because she can't tear her eyes away from the scene in front of her. She still has that stupid smile sewn on her face and she can't seem to undo the thread, because suddenly she realizes that their whole situation is always going to be a cover up, one huge blanket of lies and foster siblings and she couldn't possibly tear it apart.

And once the hallway is just another hospital hallway, just another bad memory that lost its chance to be replaced, her head takes over again and tugs her body in motion.

But the blanket is so thin that she does not go unnoticed, and his voice is beckoning her, prompting her to explain herself. "Hey, what's up?"

It's such a simple question, it shouldn't be hard for her to answer, but something has a grip on her voicebox and won't stop squeezing. They both just stare at her, with blank eyes and blank faces as they watch her flounder.

"Callie?"

Brandon is the one who says it, not Talya, though she wears neither her usual scowl or smirk. That's getting somewhere, she supposes, but the thing inside her moves down to her heart and wraps itself tightly around it's already weak surface. "I, uh, was going to see if you wanted some coffee. Talya?"

She thinks she's played it off nicely, and Talya doesn't seem to notice, but Brandon's eyebrows continue to trek dangerously lower into a look of concern. He doesn't answer, but his girlfriend does. "I'm fine, thanks."

And it's not bitter when she says it, not at all, it's actually quite cordial. But Callie can't stand to look at her face any longer than she already has and she exits to the waiting room, accidentally taking a seat in plain sight so they clearly see she wasn't going to make a trip to the coffee machine. Talya thinks nothing of it, even laughing a little as she says, "I hope you didn't actually want any coffee," but Brandon is unresponsive, his list of people to worry about slowly growing.

But even as Callie realizes her mistake, she doesn't care. Not really anymore.

Not when he asks Talya to pick up some food for them to share from the cafeteria, not when he makes sure she's all the way around the corner before heading inside, not when he takes a seat next to her, their elbows connected.

"Where's Wyatt?"

She brings her knees to her chest, suddenly wishing she had some kind of shell. To Brandon, she does. And when he saw that look on her face in the hallway, the shell wasn't there, but now it's back up again, and he has to know why. He has to know what he could've done to keep it away permanently.

"He left. Hates hospitals as much as I do."

"We could go home, if you want,"

He speaks so low, his breath tickling her ear unintentionally, that it almost feels intimate. But the way he offers it to her, so softly and tenderly, seems to spawn only that word in her mind. She knows its nowhere near how he meant it, but she has to curl herself up tigher to fend off the sudden chills. "No, Brandon, I know you want to stay. This is about you, not me."

"It's about all of us. And if you don't feel comfortable-"

"I'm fine."

She says it so evenly that she almost tricks herself for a second, but only a second. She is getting better at lying, but not quite there yet, because his expression never falters.

"Where is Wyatt, really?"

It's such a strange question that she leans back a little in her seat, raising a clean brow at the curious boy she adores so. _Yes, _she's finally able to say such a thing in her mind, and given time and a better situation, she may be able to admit it outloud. "I told you."

Ever so slightly, he leans forward, making up for the lost space between them. "But why did he really leave?"

Her eyes wander to his forehead, past those crystal eyes that are drilling into her, where she finds some loose curls plastered to his skin with sweat. She wants to brush them back softly, and she even raises her hand a little to do so, but stops short at the arm rest, which she decides to grip instead. _Not yours. _"We don't belong together. Him and I. So we ended it on good terms."

"Callie,"

"Don't say it." she almost grinds it out but with him, she can't. She know he really _is _sorry. "I can't hear it again, especially not from you. I...I know what you must be feeling right now and I would never wish that upon anyone. Sucks that it has to be you."

The conversation seems to be going nowhere and somewhere all at once, but not a second more is spent on it as Talya steps into the room, carrying a tray of assorted foods. Callie watches as she spots them, expecting to see some reaction, but she approaches with a small smile. "I'm not hungry, but I brought enough to feed a village."

Brandon doesn't even answer his girlfriend, and Callie realizes that he has been just staring at her the whole time, a strange, unidentifiable look dancing on his face. She pushes back the pleasurable flutterings it gives her and takes the tray from Talya's hands, who is starting to suspect something, though she's unsure if it's threatening to her. Callie babbles something along the lines of "thank you" and "our village is hungry". She knows her face must have shuffled through fifty different shades of red in the past five seconds.

Brandon finally meets Talya's insecure gaze, agreeing, "Yeah, that was sweet of you," but an idiot could see his whole heart wasn't in it.

She shrugs, suddenly very indifferent about the gesture. "Just...take care, you guys. I'm going to head home. But please let me know when you hear about your mom. If you could."

The muscles in Callie's neck clench as she realizes their cover is blown. Though she was expecting some kind of outburst from the redhead, a crossing of lines, her distant, sullen attitude is shooting pangs of guilt through her stomach. If it's not just as bad, it's worse.

Still, she doesn't stop the girl.

"Of course." Brandon assures quietly, and in the next second she is

_gone._

But it doesn't feel temporary, not to either of them. When she walked out of that waiting room, she walked out of his life forever. Everyone is aware of that. And because they are, he's looking at her again, looking at her as if in a new light. "Wyatt walked away because you can admit it now, can't you?"

She doesn't even try to play dumb this time. "It took a tragic accident for me to realize a lot of things. Like, how Talya's not so bad, but because I've finally come to terms with my feelings for you, she's gone. And that this whole time I was using Wyatt to try and convince myself otherwise. I've hurt a lot of people, Brandon."

"Neither of us would have worked out. We all did eachother a favor, when you think about it. Saved us some time, gave us more chances to live life fuller, better. Don't you see it now? Everything you've been through, all the pain during the conflict...this is the resolution. Nobody knows what happens next after a novel ends, but everybody knows it's something great."

Callie grins a little, partly because of his cheesy speech, but mostly because she geniunely feels a little bubbly inside. She picks up a yogurt cup off the tray and rolls it between her palms, not meeting his eyes, which almost seem to twinkle. "Clearly someone hasn't read any Edgar Allen Poe."

And then he grabs her face between his palms, pressing those full, rosy, inviting lips to her forehead. When she leans back, a little stunned but kind of high, he peels off the lid of the yogurt still in her hands and sticks a spoon in it for her. He looks around casually, almost as if saying _look at me, look at who I'm with. _

And when she thinks suddenly _this is wrong, _she shakes her head and looks at her lap with a toothy smile. Truthfully, she only believed it for a moment.

Just one fleeting moment.

**fin.**

_+5 cool points for those that review _


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